While in college, I worked full-time for a regional rental car chain. If you've seen the Hertz commercials that depict "the bargain rental company" then you know a little bit about where I worked.

Our manager was a great friend to all of the employees but was ultimately spineless when it came to asking his seniors for something. At one point the light bulbs in his office went out and, due to his cowardice, it was two months before they were replaced (which I had to do while he was on vacation).

In any event, our location had received some complaints about the cleanliness of the cars as well as the amount of time people were waiting, even with a reservation. My manager was called in 4-5 times over the next two months, as the CEO tried to figure out what the problem was. The corporate office was literally across the street from our location. He would always return from those meetings looking scared and command us to redouble our efforts.

After two months of meetings, the complaints still rolled in. Fed up, the CEO had our entire team to the corporate office to discuss the issue.

CEO: Why the hell can't you guys get this right?!

Me: Sir, have you ever noticed that every complaint occurs on a Tuesday or Friday?

CEO: What...who works those days.

Me: We all rotate those days. But the employees working is not what those days have in common.

CEO: Well then what's the problem

Me: Frankly sir, you are. Every Tuesday your wife brings her Jaguar to have it detailed, she's rude, and she threatens our jobs if we don't do it quickly. And every Friday when you bring your Navigator to have it detailed, we drop everything else we're doing to get that done.

CEO: ............. I'll look into it

Three days later I was fired for being 2 minutes late for a shift. A shift that I'd worked a month before.
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A number of years ago I was working for a large international retailer (UK based) as a lowly cashier, I was in regular contact with the part-time staff, who were mostly older ladies.

When one of them was about to turn 65 we decided to start a staff collection in order to organise a birthday bash for her among the staff, mostly organised by another of the long time staff. There was no coercion involved and everybody was willing to chip in €5 (no more was asked for or accepted). Low-hours and school-age staff were also not asked to contribute.

Unfortunately the shop manager (an up-tight little so-and-so) got word of the collection and party. The next day word came down to the floor that there couldn't be a collection and that if he heard there'd been a party that heads would roll. Seemingly we were breaching company policy by running the collection, and by organising a staff party (all this was bs naturally).

By this stage we had a nice amount of money collected (about €1,000 IIRC) and we did not know what to do with it. Nobody wanted it back, but we were under scrutiny. So it was decided that we'd get something nice for the birthday girl and it would be presented to her at her family's birthday party, nicely circumventing the manager.
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Ok so one day I was told I by my manager he needed to speak to me about performance and time off. I was thinking that this would be that I needed to take some time off... no so much...

He sat me down with an HR person and need to talk to me about "Sick Leave". They told me I took too much sick time. I had taken a total of 4 days of sick leave from the company.

For some background during my training they told us that if we were sick that we needed to code that time as sick leave. So if I work from home then state that time code but if you were sick then you need to state sick.

So I did...

Way wrong answer. They told me that I needed to actually work while I was sick so they could bill my time for the client. I asked them in return that when I am sick with the flu and couldn't leave bed what should I do?

Earlier this year, a good friend recommended me to his boss to be hired as a freelance PHP developer.

I jumped at the chance. The pay was obscenely good, I could telecomute, and they even shipped me a company laptop.

I worked my butt off for three months, doing some of the best coding I had ever done. The boss was a great guy, it was cool working with my friend, and my bank account (and fiance!) was happy.

Suddenly, my friend called me to tell me to hold off on working, as something was going down. I halted work, and waited.

A week passed. My friend talked to me daily, telling me he could not get a hold of the boss for some reason. We were both a little worried, as paychecks were due and there was nothing from the boss.

Finally, after two weeks, the boss contacted us. We told him that we expected to get paid, and he said the company was in some financial trouble, asked us to be patient, and gave us the laptops as a down payment for the paychecks. We told him that was all well and good, but we would not continue work until we got paid.

A week later, my friend calls me to tell me the boss was now impatient at a mental hospital. He had been embezzling from the company, and most of what he had told us was completely bogus. We weren't even on the actual company payroll. He had tried to kill himself when everything hit the wall. So, he was resting comfortably in the loony bin while my friend and I were out almost a month's pay with no hope of ever getting it back.
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I think this story is best told in dialogue format. Here's how the conversation between my boss and myself just went:

Me: "Here are the contracts for you to sign."
Boss: "Great. Hey, when are you leaving today?"
Me: (smiling) "Whenever I'm done."
Boss: "When is that?"
Me: "Well, whenever I'm finished with whatever task you're about to give me."
Boss: "Well, when would you be leaving if I didn't give you anything?"
Me: "Uh...probably at 5, so I can finish my homework."
Boss: "Well, then come see me before you go, because I have some stuff for you to do."
Me: "Um, why don't you give it to me now so I can finish it early?"
Boss: "I don't know what it is yet."

All I can figure is that he needs the time between now and then to invent something for me to do, just so I don't get to go home.
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